


Checkmate

by Kacychase



Category: I Love Yoo (Webcomic)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-03-23
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:54:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23275861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kacychase/pseuds/Kacychase
Summary: Just a harmless game of chess. (Yui and Yu Jing)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3





	Checkmate

The two women, either of them dressed in grey coats enter the building that happened to be Kousuke’s old apartment.  _ It’s funny how _ , one of them thought,  _ she brought me into a place I know already. _ The beautiful woman with dark eyes quickly flickered with them over the place. Everything had it’s familiar sense of sterility and lack of admittance to oneself. She knew that the woman in front of her had an influence on that man – she was his mother after all.

However, said other beauty did not bother to muster her patience to watch her surroundings – she knew them by heart ever since designing the apartment for her lovely and only son. Yet, it wasn’t necessarily her son she was worried about in this setting – she knew that he would be at work anyway. in fact, her counterpart was in this room and she gave her a lot of material to indeed be worried about. Though however powerful the other might be, in the end, the blue-eyed woman knew how to keep her strings of her plans. She knew how to win.

“Thank you very much for your quick reply to my request, my dear!”, the elder spoke softly with a hint of worry that was too perfect, too smooth to be true as the other one noticed. “I was worried sick after my dear husband told me about the development of the case about the redhead. Is there really anything I can do to assist you with the case?”

The younger of the women tried to spot the other one’s lie opposing to her. “Oh, Mrs. Hirahara, I really appreciate your sentiment”, the other woman replied in an equally skilled fashion – that was the attitude she was working with after all, “but I sadly can’t see a way in which you can help my case. As a journalist, I really need to stay professional and confidential at my work.” Elegantly, Yu Jing placed herself on the counter, sitting in front of Yui.

“Oh dear, I am very curious about you! My darling hasn’t introduced you to me”, the tall woman told the other in a chirpy and excited voice. For some reason, Yu Jing felt like this was a bait. “At least now we have the possibility to meet, Mrs. Hirahara. What’s the occasion?” Yu Jing was not stupid, this woman wanted information about the kid.

In her imagination, she would, too. In court.

“Oh, dearie, I just wanted to thank you for your engagement into the kid’s case”, her eyes shortly flickered over to the taller woman’s eyes, barely visible, “And of course, I thought we could chat and get to know each other better! I am sure there is a lot going on for one busy, successful and beautiful woman like you!” Of course, Yui knew that these words of flatter would not get her to what she wanted, but she needed to keep up the façade. Both of them knew how to do it, and Yu Jing really appeared like an interesting enemy.

However, as she curiously looked at the beautiful young journalist, she just got welcomed by a stare, analyzing and calculating. “Thank you, Mrs. Hirahara, I appreciate your acknowledgement. Surely, you have a lot of interesting endeavors and important sayings in your career. Your husband told me about your skillful ways in business”, Yu Jing simply smiled back with eyes closed.  _ So did your son _ , she simply thought.

“Would you like tea? Maybe a game to bond over? I am sure you haven’t had the time to relax and play in a while, my dear,” Yui simply engaged into heating an elegant grey water kettle. Indeed, Yu Jing considered herself quite lucky with that offer – at least she would be able to concentrate on something else than constantly dodging Yui’s conversation topics. “Maybe chess? It used to be one of my favorite games when I was younger”, Yui chirped, looking at her counterpart in a questioning matter. “Gladly”, Yu Jing replied with a polite smile.

It was definitely one of the easier methods to get Yu Jing into talking, or at least so Yui thought. Of course, both graceful women were aware of each other's tactics. However, Yu Jing couldn't really bear the fact that the woman dressed in white would always try to interfere and pry whenever she would talk with the kid, not even mentioning the possible bond Nol and Shin-Ae shared - and if she pieced two and two together, both of these young teenagers were more in danger than she was afraid of realizing.

"And thank you very much for the offer, Mrs. Hirahara, however, I have my coffee with me. It's just a force of habit, one always has their favorite coffee with oneself", Yu Jing simply replied with a gentle smile, pulling out a thermos can she was always carrying with her - in fact, her coffee was the only one she could enjoy these days - at least when she was working. And even though this encounter might be intriguing for both women, she was definitely not here for leisure time. "So, my dear Yu Jing, tell me your secret! How could such a young, wonderful woman put a step into such a fascinating, yet quite... differing industry?", the raven-haired woman smoothly questioned with an elegance to her voice that was quite fascinating, her smile everlasting on her face.

The woman sitting on the table simply buttoned up her black cardigan over her dark grey turtleneck shirt. "Well, it definitely is quite a mission to put yourself out there and last longer than other fellow writers that do not value the actual purpose of journalism", she simply replied, calmly sipping a little bit of her coffee. "It's simply the act of writing about actual things that can fascinate the people, don't you think, Mrs. Hirahara?"

That little remark was quite a telling one. Quietly, surely and with a very slow, even menacing motion, Yui turned around, her icy blue eyes focused on Yu Jing's dark ones. "It must be so. It's such a shame that sometimes, stories can be told to reach the crowd, and it must be quite stressful for a reader to evaluate - who is actually telling the truth? Being trustworthy has to be very hard work, even letting a detail slip", she swiftly turned off the boiling water, "could be dangerous for one's career and image. How difficult it must be for you, Ms. Yu Jing."

Well, at least the pet names were gone now, Yu Jing thought. So this was how the whole misunderstanding must have happened. She clearly saw in the facial expression and in the way of speech that Yu contradicted her own words - she must have had very interesting ways of manipulation to get to her true goal. How did she manage to do it?

Not even mentioning how she has perceived Kousuke... back when they were together at least. How much of an influence did this woman have on this whole endeavor? Yu Jing remembered how she saw her the very first time and how ever since, Yui was quite enticed with her, maybe more than she should have been. She quickly looked at her white dress, trying to piece the puzzles together.

But she needed more clues.

"Would you like to start the game as soon as you have your tea?", Yu Jing smiled at the woman, eyes piercing into hers. Yui's eyes, now open, looked like one of a wolf eyeing their prey. "Gladly, my dear."

And so, she sat down in front of Yu Jing, having a chess board in front of them. Neither of them had the time to play chess recently but they were quite the tacticians - both confident enough to win the game of wits, at least in the real-life, intercommunicative perspective.

"So. You have been involved in the case I heard", Yui suddenly started to say after they built up the chess pieces. She moved one of the white pawns forward, declaring the first move of the game. Yu Jing replied with moving another pawn forward by two. "Well", she answered, leaning with her chin on her hand, "I have been at the party and am a journalist. The kid must have had quite the news." "Oh yes, the poor kid really had it coming", Yui's compassionate voice was lulling and quite saddened, as much as her facial expression. But Yu Jing did not miss the little moving of the lips - the little indicator that maybe, Yui was hiding something she has not shown to anyone yet. Was she close?

"I never wanted anything like this for my favorite redhead. He is so young and surely would never engage in such brutal crimes! The fact that he punched the poor Kim's son, Sang-Chul, came by total surprise!", she added with a hint of shock, looking down at the board of the two pawns. She put out the bishop - quite early for the game but she was assured that nothing was about to happen to him as of yet. Yu Jing moved another pawn, not sure of Yui's tactics yet. "I agree, Mrs. Hirahara. The media has been quite in a hassle about spreading the news - all quite varying from each other despite the footage. Don't worry about this issue, I will take care of spreading the proper information," Yu Jing suddenly added.

Yui felt a bitter taste on her tongue. She didn't like the determination in the voice of this young, admittedly beautiful but quite successful woman. This journalist knew what she was doing and if she continued to dig for the truth, she might find out things she wasn't supposed to. She didn't like that view at all. Also, she did not miss her involvement with Rand, even the fact that she used to see her with her own son on campus. What was their relationship? Could she use her current image, work or even Kousuke's possibly... risked well-being to her advantage to stop her from digging? She did have to be very careful though.

Again, she was not a simple teenager or this loafer of a bastard. Yu Jing really was a level-headed and skillful person of high position in her industry.

Why did her husband have to do this?

"Well, you are absolutely right, my dear, and I agree! I ask myself what Alyssa might think of this - with her new debut and her career incoming, her boyfriend is going off rampage on TV, the poor girl must be shocked as well!", Yui quickly muttered, bringing out the knight into the middle of the chess field. "Oh?", Yu Jing replied with an arched brow. "You did not know? I thought Yeong-Gi would have dropped her in the conversation", Yui quickly remarked and tried not to smile. Maybe, this would confuse her a little - again, this was proof that the guy would not even bother to mention Alyssa. Yet he would run for her like the idiot his father was.

Yu Jing kept silent however, moving her hand over the different chess pieces. The black ones were sincerely soothing to play - she was always happy to be reactive to her clients' moves and remarks, just as much as during chess rounds. "I simply saw him saving a girl and I gave her CPR that day, Mrs. Hirahara. My job is not to unfold the boy's whole life but rather to tell the truth of what really happened." "And I wish you the best of luck for it, my dear", Yui immediately nodded and followed Yu Jing's hand as she moved out one of the bishops as well.

Interesting. She was looking for the quick checkmate, wasn't she? But the white-dressed woman was not easily deceived. "You know, you remind me so much of myself when I was younger, my dearest. I used to want it all - success, a good husband, recognition, a good reputation. It was all granted to me through this job. How come that you think that this job - seeking the truth with your articles - would be the right fit? Is it not a struggle for you to look for the right hints and seek the right contacts to tell what truly happened, Ms. Yu Jing?"

This question was not easy to answer for the black-dressed woman. However soothing and smooth the voice of Mrs. Hirahara, both made their moves with their chess pieces alongside the conversation, each precise and well-thought through. Seemingly, both were good opponents for each other. "It is. But I always get my way, Mrs. Hirahara." As she moved a chess piece, she didn't even bother looking at the board while locking her dark brown eyes with blue ones. And as she quickly realized, it wasn't the chessboard Yui was studying. Even as both of them lost their tower, neither of them blinked more than necessary.

It was her. Actually, her gaze seemed so disarming, as if she tried to memorize every single facial expression she would make, every reaction she showed. It actually felt like she had her own goal to get from Yu Jing's visit. Yu Jing could quickly deduce her manipulation techniques and that there was no shame in showing no empathy for the boy himself, or for his girlfriend, even the Kim's son Sang-Chul.

But Yui also noticed things about Yu Jing. She wasn't only on the case, she was carefully trying not to mention Kousuke in their discussions - even though she was hinting at it constantly. "You must have known my dear son Kousuke - he was pretty much excelling at his studies back then" or "Did you not attend several formals as well? I swear I could see you talking to my son once or twice!" Of course Yui remembered the times she saw her son on campus, hanging around with this woman. She carefully tried to avoid talking about him, and he must have been a weak spot for her.

They found their first point from where to start their search. Where to look for their own cases to be solved. To win over the other.

"Checkmate."


End file.
